Monday, September 20, 2010

I’m on a bit of a Jane Bozarth kick of late. Really. Just scroll down a bit in my blog and you’ll see it’s true.

So no surprise when I was doing some reading tonight on developing learning objectives that I stumbled on more Jane wisdom:

“So: Before developing the instruction don’t just write objectives. Write the right objectives. What is this person really supposed to do back on the job? What does “understand” mean, and what evidence will show you that understanding has occurred? Devotees of Bloom’s taxonomy will argue that learner performance like “listing” and “describing” can constitute what he called ”enabling” objectives. That may valid, but they should not be the only objectives: Employees are rarely asked to “list” or “describe” anything, so it’s critical to move on to behaviors closer to desired performance, not just knowledge. And: Enabling objectives are easy to write, and to develop bullet points for, and to develop training around, and to write a quiz to assess. If you feel the training really must address these, fine, but be sure to push past them on to things that more closely resemble real performance.”

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Today I presented a webinar through MyKineo: Power to the SMEs! Empowering subject matter experts to help create better eLearning.

It’s an interesting topic and one I’d like to dive into more with all of you…but what I really wanted to share was my presentation creation process!

I’ve been reading Cliff Atkinson’s Beyond Bullet Points. Well, I started it but then didn’t get beyond the first few chapters – realized I really needed a project to try it out with as most of the book is the how-to-do-it part.

I pulled my project together yesterday in about four hours – included hammering out content, figuring out the BBP storyboard template, grabbing graphics, and learning how to use PPT beyond the basics that I know. I’m proud to say I mastered Slide Masters last night!

Unlike my usual presentation creation style – I actually thought about it first and mapped out my ideas before vomiting them all over PPT! (True confessions of an ID turned presenter…)

The template is a formatted Word document – if you buy the book you get it on the companion CD. Once you complete the outline, you publish your “headlines” to PPT.

The structure

You start with an overall introduction – five slides that set the scene, identify the audience, introduce the challenge, present the hoped for outcome, and state the call to action (if you look at my deck, the call to action is “Help the SMEs see the forest and the trees with three key strategies”.

Next you create three key points to support the call to action. Each key point gets three explanation slides. An explanation slide then gets three detail slides which get into the nitty gritty details.

Each slide gets a unique headline. Gone are the bullet points. And because you’re writing these at the outline stage – before you even get to your PPT, you can quickly see the structure and see where the gaps are.

Adding a visual theme

On my slide deck, I used slide masters to apply a distinct visual style to each of these three layers – the detail slides have a leaf in the corner, the explanation slides have a light shade of green, the key point slides are dark green with an image of a tree.

The idea of this layer of visual design keeps the audience in tune with where you are, driving home that organizing vision. And as a speaker I found it really helped me know where I was in the presentation.

Here’s a snapshot of part of the deck in slide sorter view – you can quickly see the structure

It’s a start…

OK, it’s not perfect. I pulled this together in about four hours – but nothing like figuring it out as you go along.

I did NOT sketch out the slides in advance when it came to adding visuals, although this is a key part of Atkinson’s process. It was getting late and I needed to get it done.

I also did a half-ass job writing out the detailed content – my “transcript” so to speak. Ideally, you write your script out so it’s all in the PPT Notes field. If you’re look at my deck, you’ll miss all of the stuff I said, but perhaps you’ll get the idea.

In a few sections, I added more detail slides, blowing the whole holy trinity thing out of the water. But it needed to be done…

Because it was an online webinar, I added a few questions here and there to increase audience participation. That’s not part of Atkinson’s model.

I added some initial slides and some slides at the end to provide a final recap and some additional resources. Not sure if that’s allowed in this system!

Friday, September 10, 2010

Who’s at the heart of the eLearning design process? Why the learner, of course! And yet, the dear learner so often lies lonely and forlorn amidst the piles of binders, the loads of text bullets and the pages and pages of content. So how can you bring them front and center? Why, bring them into the design process!

A weekly online talk show, Instructional Design Live is based around Instructional Design related topics and is an opportunity for Instructional Designers and professionals engaged in similar work to discuss effective online teaching and learning practices.

At course intro (this is for a higher-ed online program) – need to do a bio – which is important to creating community – instead of “tell me who you are” to “What are your superhero powers. Include an explanation of how your powers are useful to you personally and/or professionally.”

These activities need to happen throughout the course – have ongoig bio activities (in a f2f classroom you get to connect in class) – Joni introduces an orienting activity every 3 weeks or so. Virtual Paper bag -- 5 images that represent that important areas of your life – share via Flickr. Let’s you see what each other is all about…

As a follow up exercise, add a soundtrack (a playlist) for each of the images…what’s the slogan – ways to extend the exercise without starting from scratch every time.

Joni doesn’t call these fun…but they’re learning to use the tools, expressing themselves.

These activities are worth points towards the overall grade – if they matter.

Twitter – a great way to stay connected

Caption this photo – get a photo and create a caption to it that is in the context of that week’s reading assignment as a way to represent understanding in a playful way.

Soundtracks – make up new lyrics to a song in a way that reflects understanding of the week’s contents..

Cloudbusting – create a word cloud of 20 words that represent who you are. Or on a particular concept – to demonstrate your understanding of a particular concept.

Story galleries -- give students a set of photos and have them tell the story based on the readings for the week that these 3 photos represent.

Fun strategies in assessment – look for alternative ways to represent what you know for assessment purposes.

Roleplaying – www.xtranormal.com – create a scenario with two characters with opposing views on a topic. Takes a lot of understanding to write a script for both sides of the topic!

Create a sense of anticipation – the unexpected is a powerful way to make it memorable. (This is important to both students and faculty who have to keep teaching the same content over and over – the fun activities keep the teacher energized!)

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About Instructional Design Live:

A weekly online talk show, Instructional Design Live is based around Instructional Design related topics and is opportunity for Instructional Designers and professionals engaged in similar work to discuss effective online teaching and learning practices.

Thursday, September 02, 2010

As I reach for my iPhone first thing in the morning to check my email, or see what’s happening on Twitter while I’m pushing a kid on the swing I’ve also been thinking about the rush of dopamine we must all get when we get a new email, twitter @ reply, blog comment, etc.

Oh the thrill! Oh the excitement! Oh the addiction!

How do you cope? How do you manage to disconnect and maintain a semblance of balance?